That landlord or prospective vendor won’t take your
phone-calls or return your emails, whilst another prospective landlord or
vendor takes your calls, but won’t commit to giving you time for the property
on the market. The more you focus on what they won’t do, the less likely you
are to get the reply you need. You have a plan, an approach, and a value
proposition. Your dream client has a plan, too. Your plan is not working but their
plan is.
Let me tell you a home truth Mr(s) Letting or Estate
Agent .. It is not them - It is YOU who is the problem. You see if you want your prospective
landlord or vendor to react differently, you have to change their motivation to
do so. You, Mr(s) Agent, have to change what you are doing ... and how you are
doing it ... before they change how they respond TO YOU. Don’t get me wrong, persistence
is the name of the game if you want to nail down a vendor or landlord. In fact,
persistence is a key characteristic of the letting and estate agents who succeed.
However, being persistent without changing your approach is not.
By you making the call (or email or note or whatever), the
ball is in your court. You throw the ball over to the prospective vendor/landlord,
hoping and wanting to receive a response. But what if you get cold shouldered,
what if they won’t return your call? Reply to your email. ... Well you could be really pi**ed off, you
could feel like you are banging your head against a closed door. But here is
another thought ... maybe what you are saying isn’t what the prospective
vendor/landlord wants to hear? Maybe what you are saying, or the way you are
saying it, isn’t ringing true with them. Just take a couple of minutes out to
think. How would you like an agent to be badgering you every 5 minutes saying
they had a hot viewer but they needed to sign your sole agency first ..and can
I pop round in in 20 minutes to get it signed?
Fellow agents .. just because your smooth technique worked
on other landlords/vendors, doesn’t mean it will work on this punter. If it
isn’t working, change the record .. change the way you deliver that message ...
change the message itself.
Why not send a box of donuts or muffins round? Daft I know,
but memorable. What is £15 if it gets you the deal worth thousands? Before you
dismiss it .. just think for a second. Now here are some ideas, some ideas for
people you have met and wanting to commit and others for cold approaches. If
email isn’t being replied to, they have invented a new machine that can allow
you talk to them without being in the room ...
its magic! (It’s called a
Telephone!).. and they won’t answer, call the wife or husband. If you have
mutual connections, get them to introduce you. If there is no phone number to
ring, look on their Linkedin profile (if they have one), if you are connected,
most people’s telephone number is on the ‘Contact Info’ tab under their
picture. A real favourite of mine is to send an Outlook calendar invite with a
note asking them to send back times that work better for them to chat, if
they are unavailable.
If the landlord or vendor isn’t deciding which agent to go
with, change the way you ask. You, as a Valuer or Lister haven’t done a good
enough job explaining to your potential vendor or landlord the benefits from going
with you and your agency, how you will make their life easier, simpler, make
more money, (or whatever it is you base your agency’s proposition by). Mr Estate Agent and Mrs
Letting Agent, only you create the results you want when you become aware of
that the only thing you have any power to change is YOU.
If you change what goes around your head, the way you think,
the reason why you are doing all this and how you do it..... then your results
will change as well.